A commonly used wheel bearing design for the last fifteen years, the so called Generation III design, combines wheel mount, suspension mount and bearing races to the greatest extent possible into a unitized package that is simply bolted on in the assembly line. An example may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,167 to Lura et al, commonly assigned. The design disclosed there is a non driven, trailing bearing, with an inner, wheel mounting spindle and a coaxial outer, suspension mounted hub. Since the spindle is non driven, it need not be attached to anything but the wheel, and it is basically just a short, solid shaft with a stub end that extends through the hub. Two rows of bearing balls running on angular contact pathways support the spindle within the hub. In order to maximize the ball count in the axially innermost ball row, a separable race piece incorporating the inner ball pathway is inserted over the stub end of the spindle and against the ball inner ball row after the inner ball row has been installed. The separable race piece is axially adjacent to a groove machined into the spindle stub end. A keeper ring of the proper width to maintain preload on the race piece is wedged radially into the groove, in abutment with the race piece. Then, a swage ring is roll formed around the outside of the keeper ring to hold it into the groove. When a bearing of this type is used in a vehicle with an ABS system, the typical arrangement is to simply press fit a toothed ring over the swage ring, and install a magnetic sensor through the seal end cap, to give a completely sealed device. Such a design is shown in FIG. 9 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,234 to Ouchi.
It is also known to use the same basic wheel bearing design with a driven or powered wheel. In that case, the spindle is not solid, but has a central bore that is splined to receive matching splines on a shaft that protrudes from the housing of a constant velocity joint. The shaft is bolted to the spindle. The bolting operation can also serve to set the preload in the bearing when a Generation II type bearing is used, in which all the races are separable. An example of such an arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,458, which also shows a wheel speed sensor. The sensor assembly, including the toothed wheel called an encoder ring, are attached independently of the manner in which the wheel bearing and the constant velocity joint are assembled, in a bolt on fashion with little or no cooperation between the various structural elements.
An example of a Generation III type bearing used with a powered wheel is disclosed in both coassigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,010,290 and 4,998,220. In each design, there is more integration of components than is shown in FIG. 9 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,234. As disclosed, the swage ring and encoder ring are integrated into one component, serving both to hold the keeper ring against being dislodged from its groove, as well as providing the regular teeth that create a wheel speed signal. With each design, the shaft from the CV, not illustrated in those patents, is still installed as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,458, with the exception that the shaft attachment bolt does not also set bearing preload in a Generation III design. It would be an advantage to integrate more of the various bearing, drive and speed sensor functions into fewer components and fewer assembly operations, if possible.